Symbolic play connects to language through visual object recognition
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Updated: May 29, 2026

Defining the Role Of Language in Infants' Object Categorization with Eye-tracking Paradigms
Published on: February 8, 2019
1Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Indiana University-Bloomington, IN 47405, USA. smith4@indiana.edu
Abstract:
Object substitutions in play (e.g. using a box as a car) are strongly linked to language learning and their absence is a diagnostic marker of language delay. Classic accounts posit a symbolic function that underlies both words and object substitutions. Here we show that object substitutions depend on developmental changes in visual object recognition: 18- to 30-month old children (n = 63) substitute objects in play after they have developed the adult-like ability to recognize common objects from sparse models of their geometric structure. These developmental changes in object recognition are a better predictor of object substitutions than language or age. A developmental pathway connecting visual object recognition, object name learning, and symbolic play is proposed in which object substitutions are like the canary in the coal mine: they are not causally related to language delay, but their absence is an easily detected signal of a problem in language acquisition.
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